NEW YORK - Maybe it took a trip to the East's biggest basketball stage for the Providence College Friars to learn what they're not all about.

NEW YORK - Maybe it took a trip to the East's biggest basketball stage for the Providence College Friars to learn what they're not all about.

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While the Friars caught fire in the second half of the Big East schedule and won seven of their last nine games, Ed Cooley was juggling a lineup with some inconsistent parts and a major lack of depth. Mick Cronin, the coach at Cincinnati, took notice heading into Wednesday's Big East Tournament game at Madison Square Garden and unleashed his bigger, stronger, quicker group of Bearcats on the Friars.

The results weren't pretty. PC fell behind by 11-2, 18-4 and 26-8 in a long first half and never could claw their way back in a 61-44 loss.

"We were just trying to throw body blows and wear them down," said Cronin, whose team improved to 22-10 and is heading to the NCAA Tournament. "We were trying to take their legs."

Mission accomplished. The Bearcats defended PC's every dribble, not to mention pass and shot. PC's lack of size in the frontcourt and inability to finish at the rim was highlighted by Cincinnati's seven blocks, five by 6-foot-10 center Cheikh Mbodj. PC missed 20 of its first 23 shots and shot 28 percent in both halves.

Needing a big shooting game to combat Cincinnati's interior size, the Friar shooters made only one of 16 tries from the 3-point line. Kadeem Batts sparked a second-half comeback and led the Friars with 14 points and 8 rebounds and the undersized LaDontae Henton battled for eight points and eight boards but Bryce Cotton (0-7 on threes) struggled on his way to 12 points and Vincent Council (1-of-7, three points, five assists) never got untracked.

"The first four minutes they came out with a lot of intensity and we weren't expecting that type of intensity and ball pressure. They sped us up and next thing we know we're down 20-6," said Council. "We couldn't drop any shots and we couldn't rebound when we needed to and that sparks the fastbreak. That's our game."

PC has now lost 10 of its last 11 games in the tourney and over the last 10 seasons is just 1-9 in the Big East Tournament. The 44 points ties the program's record for fewest in a Big East Tournament game, going back to the first incarnation back in 1980. Coach Ed Cooley says that despite a 54-50 win over Cincinnati a month ago, his team wasn't ready to make a Garden run.

"Our program isn't ready for that moment yet. We're not ready for that moment," he said. "Cincinnati's won six games in the last three years in this building. Providence hasn't won in this building in I don't know how many years. So it's my job. I need to do a better job educating our kids on how to play in the moment, and we're just not there yet."

The Friars' start to the game was truly stunning. With Cincinnati defending with abandon, the Friars held onto the ball (only seven turnovers for the game) but were hurried, took bad shots and never made the one shot that could have jump-started the attack.

Just as importantly, PC's defense was soft out of the gate as Cincinnati ran out to a 13-2 lead with most of the damage being done in the lane or at the rim. PC started making one of its first 13 shots. The dry spell continued and when it reached a 3-of-23 start, the Bearcats were up 26-8 with 6:25 to play.

"It was a rough start. We couldn't hit shots or get stops early," said PC's Batts. "Then it escalated and they obviously played tougher and harder than us."

The Friars finally regained their composure in the final five minutes of the half. The result was a 12-3 finish that cut the halftime deficit to only 31-23. Buckets by Henton and Cotton to open the second half cut the lead to only four (31-27) and the PC fans in the Garden crowd began to feel their nightmare was ending.

But Cincinnati didn't crack. Cooley kept switching from an-to-man to zone defense and back again but the Bearcats did just enough on offense (40 percent) to keep control. Once the score slimmed to four points, Cincinnati scored the next three baskets to push the lead back to 10. The Friars kept pushing and cut the lead to six on two occasions, the last coming with 5:12 to play. But continued horrid shooting (0-for-10 from the 3-point line in the second half) short-circuited any hopes to complete the comeback.

"We had the game right where we wanted it. They scored 60 points," Cooley said. "If you'd have told me before the game that they would have 60, I'd say we've got a great shot at winning the basketball game. We can't go 0 for 7 with our best shooter (Cotton) or whatever we shot from the three-point line. You're not going to win many games doing that. It's not like we had contested shots. I thought we had open shots. We just missed."